The Lijiaba site lies at Qingshu village of Gaoyang town in Yunyang county,Chongqing city, on the first terrace by the eastern bank of the Pengxi River, a northern tributary of the Yangtze River, and is an important ancient cultural vestige in the zone to be submerged within the area of the Yangtze Three Gorges Reservoir. In 1997, excavation was carried out in Area I of the site. The Tang and later cultural layers excavated this time are largely related to agrecultural activities, though a part of them were found to be flood-left silt layers. In the fifth, ninth and fourteenth strata, many remains can be linked with rice cultivation, including extensive paddy fields, ridges, water outlets, remains of green paddy, human footprints and ox-hoof impressions. They go back, respectively, to Tang-Song times, the mid Ming to early Qing, and the Qing period. In addition, Various porcelain articles and a small number of pottery vessels, bronzes and irons were unearthed from different layers of paddy fields.
